Knee Supports (Can you wear on a single leg?)

[themuna]

This may be a stupid question but I was wondering if you had 1 bad knee would you still need to wear supports on both knees. I had a MCL injury that causes me some pain in the left knee. I was hoping to use a Knee support so that I can give it some heat and support while I strengthen it back up but am worried that I squat it may just make my knees more unbalanced. Not sure though. I see athletes playing sports with one knee support on but wasn't sure if the effect is different for lifting.

[LimitStrength]

This may be a stupid question but I was wondering if you had 1 bad knee would you still need to wear supports on both knees. I had a MCL injury that causes me some pain in the left knee. I was hoping to use a Knee support so that I can give it some heat and support while I strengthen it back up but am worried that I squat it may just make my knees more unbalanced. Not sure though. I see athletes playing sports with one knee support on but wasn't sure if the effect is different for lifting.

Depends what kind of support you are talking about using. Something like a neoprene knee sleeve can be worn only on the affected knee, but I prefer to wear them on both my knees, since they can only help prevent injury. By keeping both knees nice and warm and lubricated, only good things will happen because of it. But if you really want to, you could only wear a sleeve on the one knee and you shouldn't see any negative side effect.

If you are talking about something that gives more support, like knee wraps or a more heavy duty knee brace that actually push to straighten your knee out. Training over a long period of time only supporting one knee might evolve into a problem. Since one leg might become stronger than the other leg which could lead to you favoring one leg during something like a heavy squat which could lead to injury since you are overloading the one leg.

If you are are talking about knee sleeves that their main role is warmth and slight compression, you could wear 1 or 2 with zero issues.

If you are talking about something more beefy, try to keep the 2 legs as even on strength as possible. For instance, doing all your warm ups without any sort of brace, and then putting it on when weights get heavy to help provide support.

If you are looking just for sleeves I recommend the Tommy Kono knee sleeves, which are the best value knee sleeves on the market.

The old school Rehband Blue knees sleeves sold by Jackal's gym are the thickest knee sleeves you can buy, but you pay a premium price for them.

If you are looking for something in between a knee sleeve and a knee wrap, I would look at the Inzer Sleeves XT (http://www.inzernet.com/detail.asp?p...LEEVES_KNEE_XT).

These can be worn as simple knee sleeve for warmth and mild compression, or pulled tight for serious support very similar to using knee wraps.

[themuna]

Thanks. That's more or less what I was hoping. The exact product I have is the McDavid 402r. Can't post a link because my post count is under 50.

If anyone can be specific about this product, please feel free. Otherwise, I think I'm going to give it a go with just one on my problem knee.